The failing was the one and done nature of it all.

The vote should have been, should we entertain this idea?

If yes, a second referendum on what Leave actually means when it comes to the final decision point.

Y'know the same way that any remotely functioning democracy would approach something this large and nebulous.

Iceland being just the most recent example.

Instead the vote was "life carries on as is" vs "something changes", with no clarity of what that change is.

Given the state of the UK post austerity there is no surprise the vote for "I don't want more of this" was so high.

That's the incredible failing of the UK democratic process here, Cameron foremost.

The real power lies in the people deciding what to vote on, not the vote itself. That's why you elect these people too.

My understanding is they considered a vote on the type of brexit, but were pretty convinced the public would vote for a hard brexit that no one in the regime wanted.

Eh, the ‘beauty’ of democracy is it is allowed to screw itself as hard as it wants.